Saturday, 14 July 2012

Sign me up: the second and third class

So, I've been taking the Google' Power Searching course and I've been trying to record my thoughts while doing so. The second and third class lessons go beyond the elementary tools (which, it turned out, I had plenty to learn about) and focus more on how you're putting it all into context. Here are some of the random thoughts I developed during those classes.

Random Thought #1. "Ooh, interpreting! Now they speak my language!"

Random Thought #2. "Waiddaminnute... this aint't Google search!" My usual search habit is this - the Chrome browser user that I am, I type my search into address bar and that's it. I haven't bothered to actually open a Google front page in years. Lately I had been noticing that the search results interface on my Windows machine (unlike at the "Office Ubuntu") looked different. In a work rut I had shrugged it off as some update process going on. But now it became apparent that some other engined had sneaked itself into defaults - easy to change.

Random Thought #3. "No, wait, I don't want the Local Google, I want Google proper. No-no-no-no-no, don't you dare re-direct me to .ee again. Hm, but if I try it this way... No-no-no-no-NO. Fuck. How am I supposed to learn all thios fun stuff if I can't even set up the basic tools for it? Holy FUCK, this is frustrating. I don't feel much like learning so much. And I've used up the time I meant to set aside for this lesson." I was almost about to post a lament in the course forums, DEMANDING an extra instruction on how to handle the local settings. Then I saw one user's advice to another: "switch to Google.com by clicking that link. It's at the bottom of the page." I looked. Of course it was at the bottom of the page.

Random Thought #4. So, the 'define' function that I once enjoyed so much (and that might very well be the one useful thing I managed to give to my students during my brief teaching career) is not lost and gone at all. It just doesn't work on the "local-Google".

Random Thought #5. "Yay, completed the first set of classes, on to the assessment while my search-y fingers are still warm... um... why the rush?" I managed to dissipate my knee-jerk-y urge to complete all thats novel and exciting in one breath and then, at the peak of excitedness be left staring the blank wall, eyes glowing, feeling that certain combination of accomplishment and creeping emptiness. Not this time. I decided to take my time, sleep on it, let my brain process and settle the active(ated) skill'n'knowledge. Furthermore, I set myself another sneaky condition - leave the test alone until I've had a good sleep.

Here's another pretty picture. As in: another image search result for the phrase "pretty picture". This time through the white palette-filter. (The top images featured a fair amount of bunnies and unicorns. And seahorses and such.)

(Comes from this blog. I'll mark it for later reading - seems worth exploring.)

No comments:

Post a Comment

I play therefore I learn. I learn therefore I am. Hey, I like where this is going!

I was born into the eighties in Soviet Estonia and raised by science geeks. As little girl, the little access I had to computers and computer games kindled an inescapable yearning. The decades spent trying to navigate the terrains of fatigue, depression, and anxiety while still attempting to create some content and enjoy my being, have honed my skill of recognizing the talents, the boundaries, and the strategies of managing them. I didn't make a good teacher but I can be a wicked once-in-a-while instructor; my workings in instructional design feed the idea that I'm kinda good at it. In the present day I've set myself a new long-term challenge to resolve: how to tweak my existing skills in such a way that I could take part in creating video games myself?